Falling for the wrong person
by Emma.S18
Summary: Emma is being placed into a new family, which means she has to change schools too. When she meets her English teacher/school counselor, things start getting more complicated... - Eventually SwanQueen - WARNING: mention of abuse - I don't own OUAT
1. New home, new school

Emma had moved in with a new family. This usually meant she had to change schools too. The new parents were abusive and cruel to her, but Emma didn't want to leave them. If she left, she'd be placed in a group home and those are even worse then bad parents.

It was Emma's first day at her new school. She sighed and entered the principal's office. "I assume you are Miss Swan?" The blonde nodded. "Very well. Here is your schedule. If you'll follow me I'll take you to your first class."

Emma followed the older woman to her first class; English. The woman knocked on the door before entering. "Miss Mills, class, this is Emma Swan. She's new at this school. I trust you'll help her around the school." The principle said. Then she turned to Emma. "If you need anything, Miss Mills will be there to help you. She's also our school counselor."

Emma nodded. "Thank you." She looked for an empty seat and was happy to find one in the back. The teacher just went on with her class as if nothing had happened.

As the bell, signaling the end of the period rang; Miss Mills called Emma to her desk. "You wanted to talk to me?" the blonde asked emotionlessly.

"Yes, I've seen you are excused from PE this week, so I thought we could talk during the next two periods." Emma shrugged and followed her brunette teacher into the counseling office.

Emma just looked at her, without saying a word. Miss Mills sighed. "So, Emma… I've seen this is your fifth school in the last year. How come you change so often?"

The blonde shrugged. "I changed families at least twice as often." The counselor's face saddened.

"I'm sorry to here that, Emma. So, I assume you were placed into a new family recently?" Emma nodded. "And how are they treating you?" Emma shrugged.

"Fine," Miss Mills said, "how about you ask me some questions?" Emma rolled her eyes. She had gone to many counselors and she couldn't stand them.

"When can I go home?" Miss Mills sighed.

"I'm sorry, Emma, but you need to stay here for another hour and a half." Emma groaned loudly.

"Fine, if you're going to be my counselor I want to call you by your first name." Emma told the brunette.

The older woman smiled. "That seems fair. My name is Regina. Anything else you want?"

Emma thought about that for a second. This was the first time that anyone, even a counselor, had asked her what she wanted. She smiled slightly. "Can I have a cookie or something?" She asked testing the teacher.

The brunette smiled and pulled open a drawer. She handed Emma a box filled with different kinds of cookies. After Emma had taken one, she put the box away again.

"Can I ask you something now?" the counselor asked tentatively. Emma thought about it and shrugged.

"Why did your parents get you excused from PE?" Emma's eyes widened slightly. She didn't know what to say.

"They… I…" she stuttered. "I have asthma." Emma finally lied. The brunette raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, Emma. You and I both know that's not true." The blonde sighed defeated.

"Because of this," Emma lifted her shirt and showed Regina a huge bruise all over her stomach. The brunette gasped.

"What happened?" Emma was surprised. Did this woman, who she'd just met, actually care about her? No, Emma thought, that wasn't possible. Nobody cared about her.

"That's the reason I was transferred." She said, trying to sound convincing. Regina stood and walked around the desk, kneeling before Emma. She grabbed the younger girl's hands in hers.

"If anything like that happens again, I want you to come straight to me, Emma. Here, I'll give you my phone number."

Emma shrugged. "I don't have a phone," she told the brunette. "Why do you care, anyway?"

Regina sighs. "I care about you, Emma. You need someone to be there when you need them and I'd like to be that person." The brunette had been having feelings for Emma since the moment she walked into her classroom. Even though she knew nothing could ever happen between them, she still felt the need to protect Emma.

The blonde suddenly stood and hugged Regina. When she pulled away, seconds later, she blushed deeply. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Regina smiled and pulled her into another hug. "Don't apologize." Regina whispered it sweetly into her ear.

For the first time in her life Emma felt safe. She smiled into the embrace and she never wanted to let go.


	2. Trusting you

A few weeks later, Emma entered the counseling office crying. "Emma, dear, what's wrong?" Regina asked. The younger girl just walked around the desk and hugged her, sobbing into the brunette's shoulder.

"They killed my cat." Emma sobbed after a while.

"What? Why?" Regina immediately understood that the younger girl was talking about her foster parents.

"They said she made to much mess. That there was too much hair everywhere." Emma explained, never letting go of Regina.

"You need to tell your social worker to move you, Emma." She said calmly, kissing the blonde's hair.

"No! Don't!" Emma said panicked. "If you do that they'll place me in a group home and I won't survive that again."

Regina sighed. "You're being dramatic, Emma. You'll be safer there."

Emma just started crying again. "No! If you call them, they'll take me away and I'll lose the only person I've ever trusted!"

Regina pulled away to look Emma in the eyes. Seeing the sincerity there, she sighed again. "Fine, I won't call them." She said defeated.

"Thank you, Regina." Emma said relieved. Over the last few weeks, she had started to trust Regina more and more. She felt like Regina was the only person who'd ever cared about her.

"I can't lose you, Regina." Emma said, starting to calm down a little. Regina smiled into the embrace.

Not realizing what she was doing, Regina leaned in and kissed Emma. The blonde was confused for a second, but then kissed back passionately.

"You're not going to lose me, Emma. I promise." Regina said, when they separated. Just at that moment the bell rang, signaling first period was about to start.

Regina whipped a tear from Emma's cheeks and pecked her lips once more. "I'll see you at lunch later, okay?" Emma nodded and left to go to class.

Sitting back down behind her desk Regina sighed heavily. What had she done? What if someone had seen them? The brunette felt happy, though. Emma had kissed her back and she said she trusted her.

A few hours later, Emma knocked on the office door, like she'd done everyday for the past few weeks. "Come in," Regina called smiling. They sat down across from each other at Regina's desk and started eating their lunch.

"Feeling better?" Regina asked in between bites. Emma shrugged a little, thinking back to what at happened at home.

"I'm not really a cat person," Emma shrugged it of. A few seconds later, she sighed. "It was Samantha's cat though. Sam died a few years ago, trying to protect me from abusive foster parents." A tear rolled down the blonde's cheek.

"She was the only friend I'd ever had." Regina took the younger woman's hand, signaling that she was there for her.

Regina comforted Emma for a while, until the bell rang and they walked together to class.

During class the principle walked in. "Miss Mills, can I talk to you outside for a minute." The younger brunette followed the other woman outside the classroom.

"What's wrong, mother?" Regina asked. This was the first time in all the three years she'd been working there that her mother had called her outside the classroom.

"It's the new girl, Emma Swan, her parents called and asked that we send her home immediately." Regina nodded. She looked through the window into her class and locked gazes with the blonde.

"Why?" She finally asked, turning back to face her mother.

"Something about a grandmother in the hospital or something?" The principal answered unsure.

Knowing it wasn't true, because Emma didn't have any grandparents, Regina wasn't sure about letting Emma go, but she didn't have a choice. She sighed frustrated and walked back into her classroom.

"Miss Swan, you're parents are expecting you at home." The blonde frowned and hastily packed up her stuff, running out of the classroom.

What could her foster parents possibly want her home early for? It worried both Emma and Regina.


	3. Worried Regina

Regina hadn't seen or heard from Emma in days. She was really worried about the blonde, but she didn't know how to contact her.

Emma hadn't been at school since the day her parents called to get her home early.

One day, Regina decided she'd waited long enough and snuck into her mother's office. She looked up Emma's home number and called.

"Hello," A woman answered the phone.

"Hello, Ma'am. I'm Regina Mills, Emma's English teacher and counselor." Regina said to the woman, she assumed was Emma's foster mother.

"What do you want?" The woman asked coldly.

"Emma hasn't been in school for a few days and we were wondering if she was okay?" Regina asked.

"That little bitch isn't going to come to school until a few weeks. She's in the hospital, right now." The woman said, her cold and annoyed tone was getting Regina angry.

"I'd like to talk to her, as her counselor. Could you tell me what hospital she's in?" Regina asked, her own tone demanding and serious.

"The little bitch is in Boston General Hospital, if you must know. Now leave me alone," Before Regina could say anything else the woman hung up.

Regina almost ran to her car and got in, rushing to the hospital to see Emma.

"Can I see Emma Swan, please?" She asked the nurse that was sitting behind the front desk.

"Are you a family member?" The nurse asked while typing the name into the computer.

"Emma Swan is an orphan." Regina responded. "She doesn't have a family. I'm her counselor." The nurse nodded and told Regina the room number and how to get there.

Regina knocked quietly on the door, not knowing if Emma was sleeping or not. "Come in," the blonde's voice sounded weak, breaking Regina's heart.

Entering the room, Regina gasped at the sight of Emma. Her whole face was bruised and she had a broken leg and broken ribs.

"What happened?" the brunette asked worriedly.

Emma sighed. "I got beat up by some gang on my way home from school the other day." Emma said, but even she couldn't believe her own lie.

"Please, Emma. Don't shut me out again?" Regina begged. She sat down next to Emma and carefully took one hand in hers.

"Fine, my foster parents called me home, because they found out I was in love with a woman. My foster father raped me and beat me up. I've been unconscious for two days. My foster mom brought me to the hospital and told the doctors she'd found me like this on the street. They kicked me out. Said I was trash and burned everything I owned."

Regina was shocked by Emma's story. "My social worker's taking me to a group home for troubled kids as soon as I get out of here." Tears ran down the blonde's cheeks.

"We'll find a way to get you out of there, Em. I promise, I won't let anything bad happen to you again." The blonde nodded tiredly and fell asleep, feeling safer now that Regina was close.

The brunette snuck out of Emma's room and went back to the front desk. "Emma's counselor, right?" the nurse asked. Regina nodded.

"I need you to give me her social worker's number." The nurse groaned annoyed and typed the name into the computer, writing down the requested number.

She called the number the nurse had given her. "Hello," a man answered it.

"Hi, my name is Regina Mills. I'm Emma Swan's counselor." Regina could here the man's groan.

"What did the girl do now?" he asked exasperated.

"SHE didn't do anything!" Regina snapped. "Her foster father abused and raped her and you're not going to do anything about it?"

"That story isn't true, Miss Mills. Emma is known as a compulsive liar in the system. She always blames the parents for her mistakes. We're going to place her in a home for troubled kids. That's where she belongs."

"What is she lives with a therapist?" Regina asked.

"If you find one that is ready to take in Emma, I'll come check it out and maybe consider it, but this person will need to be made aware of Emma's troubled past." The man explained her.

"Fine, then you can come check out everything at my place." Regina gave the man her address. They agreed on a time and date and then they hung up.

Regina hurried back to Emma's room, hoping that the blonde was still asleep. Unfortunately, she had no such luck.

The blonde had woken up a while ago and had thought Regina had left her. "You're still here?" Emma asked as she saw the brunette enter.

Regina smiled. "Of course, I am, Em. I just needed to make a phone call."

Emma pouted childishly. "Who did you call?"

"You're social worker. He's coming to my house in two days to get me cleared for taking you in." They both smiled brightly at each other.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" The brunette smiled and nodded. She leaned over her and pecked her lips. "I will, but until your graduation no one can know about us, deal?"

Emma grinned widely. "Of course."

* * *

**A/N: Do you like this story?**

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**Please review**


	4. The Social Worker's Visit

**I'm sorry it took this long for me to write a new chapter; I really hope you'll like it…**

* * *

Regina had visited Emma every chance she got. The blonde was slowly recovering and Regina being there was definitely helping that process.

The two days before Emma's social worker would be by went by quickly. Today was the day. Regina had gone by the hospital to visit Emma, but now it was time for her to go home.

"Emma, I need to go home. You're social worker will be here soon." Regina told the blonde. The latter pouted.

"I don't want you to go," Emma whined. "What if he doesn't accept your offer and comes to take me away?" The girl asked sadly.

Regina sat down next to the younger girl and pulled her into a hug. "I'll do anything to keep you here. He won't take you away from me, I promise."

Emma sighed and shook her head. "You can't make promises like that. That is a promise you might not be able to keep."

"Don't think like that, my dear. I know good things haven't happened a lot in your life, but I'm going to make sure that will change." Regina smiled at Emma and kissed her sweetly. "Now I really have to go. I'll be back after your social worker leaves, I promise." With that she left the hospital and hurried home to fix the last few things before her visitor arrived.

* * *

At four o'clock exactly the doorbell rang. Nervously, Regina flattened out her dress and opened the door. "Good afternoon, Mister…" The brunette started, but couldn't remember if the social worker had ever given her his name.

"Stevenson. Jack Stevenson," the man supplied. They shook hands. Regina opened the door a little wider and gestured for the man to enter her home.

"So, Miss Mills, why are you so set on keeping Emma here?" The man asked, an annoyed tone as he spoke.

"Emma is a very bright student at the school I work for. She's smart, but she's misunderstood. I don't believe that she would do anything that would give people a reason to kick her out." She stated matter-of-factly.

The man rolled his eyes. "She's a compulsive liar and a manipulator, Miss Mills. You shouldn't believe her silly stories; they aren't true. The girl is so caught up in her lies, she doesn't know the difference between what's real and what's not."

"If that is true, then I would like to help her. I am a therapist, after all." Regina hoped that this would work.

"I would like to see your diploma, if that's possible. I've seen enough cases with that kind of lie." The man told her.

"I understand, Mister Stevenson, you don't want anything else to happen to Emma." Regina smiled at him, while handing him the file she'd prepared the day before.

"I'm making sure you're qualified. I wouldn't want to loose my job, because of that brat." Regina had to take deep breaths in order to keep her calm.

"In the file you will find my university diploma as well as a copy of the contract for my current job to show you I have experience with children Emma's age. I also help a girl a little older than Emma that got into trouble after her parents died. She's doing a lot better now." Regina told him.

He nodded. "Would it be possible to talk to the girl?" He asked.

Regina bit her lip. This would really help her case, but she couldn't betray her patient's confidentiality. "Normally, I'm not allowed to give you information about my patients, but I will give her a call and see if she's willing to speak with you."

Emma's social worker nodded again. "Do you mind if I look around the house while you make that call?"

"Not at all. Emma's room would be the one on the left on the first floor. She would have her own bathroom, so she can have her privacy." Regina explained.

While the man walked upstairs, Regina called Ruby. "Hello Ruby, how are you today?"

"_I'm doing great, Regina. How are you?" _

Regina sighed. "I told you about this girl I'm helping, right? Well, her social worker is here to see if I would be fit to take her in, but he would like to talk to you to see if I'm qualified to handle her case. I know what I'm asking isn't very easy, but it would really help me out." She explained.

"_Don't worry, Regina. I'll be there in a few."_

Regina smiled gratefully. "Thank you, dear."

After hanging up, Regina walked upstairs to see if Emma's social worker had found the right room.

"The room seems to be more than okay. Could you give me a tour of the rest of the house?" The social worker requested.

* * *

**Fifteen minutes later**

Regina and Emma's social worker entered the study once more after the tour of the house, just as the doorbell rang. "That should be my patient. Please, make yourself at home, while I go open the door."

"Ruby, this is Mister Stevenson. Mister Stevenson, this is Ruby Lucas." Regina introduced them.

"Miss Lucas, thank you for coming. I just have a few questions, if you don't mind." The man didn't sound very interested either way.

"Of course, sir. You can ask me anything." Ruby smiled confidently.

"You have gotten into trouble a while back?" He asked.

"Yes, after my parents died I just didn't care about things being wrong or not. I wanted to enjoy life. I started drinking, got into fights and skipped school, mostly. One day, I needed some money, so I tried to steal some from Regina. She caught me and just talked to me. She really helped me. I wouldn't have gotten back on the right track if it hadn't been for her." Ruby explained.

"How did she help you?" Emma's social worker asked.

"Just by talking to me. She understood me like no one else had and explained to me why I needed to change my new, awful, habits. She's the only person I trusted after my parents died. I came here every day, until she got me to actually talk to my Granny. She convinced Granny to give me a job. I'm so grateful to her for everything she did for me." Ruby looked at Regina and smiled.

"Anything else you want to tell me, Miss Lucas." The man's annoyance continued.

"Can I just say that there is no one better to help Emma than Regina. Emma's a good kid. She just needs the right person to be there for her." Ruby said.

"Thank you for that, Miss Lucas. I don't need to hear any more. Could I talk to Miss Mills privately for a moment now?" The man said.

"Of course, sir." Ruby stood and said goodbye, before leaving the house.

The man turned to Regina. "Anything else you would like to add, Miss Mills?"

"Just that I hope you'll make the right decision for Emma. She's a very bright girl that just needs someone to take care of her." Regina said, nervously biting her lip.

"You do know that you would be Emma's sole care taker. If something else happens with her, it will be your full responsibility. She will be eighteen in three weeks, meaning that the system won't be responsible for her anymore, unless I put her in a correctional group home where she will need to stay for at least two years."

"I understand, sir. I still believe she would be better of with me." Regina tried.

"I'm going to have to agree with you, Miss Mills."

Regina smiled widely. "Emma can stay here then?"

The man nodded. "I'm sure you can give Emma the news. I need to go to my next appointment."

Regina nodded and thanked the man, before escorting him back to the car.

As soon as he was gone, Regina hurried back to the hospital.

Emma looked up anxiously as the door opened. As she saw Regina, she immediately asked. "So… What happened?"


End file.
